Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 39

Text for the Eleven Luminaries Disaster-Dispelling rite, praying away the portent of the stars星變祈禳十一曜消災道場文

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 143 Chinese characters · reading time 1.6 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 39 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.

州國官宮之象。著在乾文。貌言視聽之差。動爲天譴。宜披精懇。仰乞陰休。伏念臣猥以無良。尹于有衆。王綱漸弛。不堪解紐之憂。國步斯危。常有綴旒之懼。況受日官之察變。屢言星度之失常。玆乃出於愛人。欲其修省。苟不深於罪己。曷可消除。斯瀝虔悰。特嚴法事。集黃冠之道侶。諷紫笈之靈文。伏望曲借居歆。僉加孚佑。三辰軌道。更無陵犯之災。四方迓衡。寢致榮懷之慶。

The shapes of district and state, of office and palace, stand revealed in the patterns of the heavens; and when bearing and speech, seeing and hearing go awry, this becomes the reproof of Heaven. It is fitting to spread out sincerity and to look up in prayer for the help that men do not see.

Prostrate, I consider that your servant presumptuously governs the multitude with a body that is not worthy. The cords of the sovereign loosen little by little, and I cannot bear the fear that the knot will part; the footing of the state is perilous, and there is always the dread of a tassel hung at the tip of a banner. Still more, the astronomer observes the changes and says again and again that the degrees of the stars have lost their constancy. This arises out of love for men, and is meant to make us amend and examine ourselves. Truly, unless the blaming of oneself go deep, how could it be done away with?

So, pouring out a reverent heart, I set out with special strictness the service of the Law. I gather the company of Daoist masters in yellow caps to chant the divine writings of the vermilion casket.

Prostrate, I pray that you bend down and partake, and add to us all your faithful help. Let sun and moon and stars go each by its own road, so that there be no further calamity of trespass; and let the four quarters meet us evenly, bringing about little by little the happy fortune of glory and compliance.

‹ Invocation announced beforehand Contents Text for the offering rite to the Eleven Luminaries and the Twenty-eight Constellations, held according to the state's divination ›Listen to this piece